


Midnight Spaghetti

by ZombieBabs



Series: The Demon Within (Is A Total Bro) [4]
Category: The Black Tapes Podcast
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crack Treated Seriously, Demonic Possession, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-06
Updated: 2016-04-06
Packaged: 2018-05-31 17:06:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6478723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZombieBabs/pseuds/ZombieBabs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's three in the morning and a demon stands in Alex's kitchen.</p><p>*Edited 7.21.17</p>
            </blockquote>





	Midnight Spaghetti

It’s three in the morning and Dr. Strand is in her kitchen. 

Or, more accurately, the demon possessing Dr. Strand is in her kitchen.

It took a long time for Alex to come to terms with the information he shared, just a few days ago. As much as she hoped to settle the matter of the existence of paranormal phenomena with her podcast, never in a million years did she dream demonic forces could be a real thing.

A real thing standing over a pot of boiling water, murmuring to himself.

“What in the _hell_ are you doing here?” She asks, setting the baseball bat she armed herself with against the wall.

Strand, or the demon controlling Strand, whirls around, hands behind his back like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “Alex! So glad you’re up.”

“How did you get into my apartment?”

The demon holds up his hands and wiggles his fingers.

Right, demon magic or whatever.

The smile on his face looks so different from the wry smile she's come to know from Dr. Strand. Still lopsided, but it's way more relaxed.

It’s weird how much younger it makes him look. More open and approachable.

Alex sighs and goes to turn on the coffee pot. If she has to be awake at this hour, she’s going to need some caffeine. “I can’t believe you just did spirit fingers at me.”

His smile grows wider, but then the water roiling in the pot begins to hiss as it boils over. He turns around and blows on it, before turning down the heat.

“What are you making?" Alex asks. "In my kitchen. At three in the morning.” 

The demon has the decency to at least look a little embarrassed. “I wanted to apologize for scaring you the other day. So I thought I would cook you dinner.”

“Dinner?" Alex raises her brows. She glances out the window above her sink, as if to check to make sure _she_ isn't the one being unreasonable. It's dark, the sun having set long ago. "In the middle of the night? After breaking into my apartment?”

“Oh, shut up,” he says, focus turned inward.

“Not you, Alex," he says, quick to reassure her. "Mr. Manners here wanted to point out how he told me this was a bad idea. But listen, it’s totally a good idea. Who doesn’t like midnight spaghetti?”

Before she can answer, her coffee maker finally spits out the last of its life-saving brew. Alex pours herself a cup. She doesn’t even bother with sugar or creamer. Instead she takes a scalding, yet satisfying, sip.

She laughs at the demon's full-body shudder, exaggerated to the point of being cartoon-ish. 

“I don’t know how you can stand that bitter bean juice. Blech.”

Alex takes another sip. “As opposed to your bitter tea leaves?”

“I mean, I’d prefer a Redbull, but it doesn’t exactly go with the persona, you know?”

He stirs the pot and then rummages through her cabinets. He pulls out a strainer and sets it in the sink. In her empty sink. A sink which was not empty when she went to bed.

“Did you do my dishes?” she asks. For some reason, out of everything she has seen in the last few days, this is what throws her for a loop.

He throws up the spirit fingers again and Alex rolls her eyes. Of course.

He drains the noodles into the strainer, then shakes out the extra moisture. The noodles go back into the pot onto one of the back burners. Next, he pulls out a jar of pasta sauce from her pantry and upends it into a smaller pot. He goes through the entire contents of her meager spice cabinet before asking, “Parsley?”

“I don’t do much cooking,” she says. 

He snaps and suddenly a sprig of parsley appears in his hand. “It’s better fresh anyway.”

He gets out a cutting board and one of her knives. While he chops the parsley, she wonders out loud. “Why don’t you just magic up the whole meal instead of cooking?”

He laughs at the word ‘magic,’ but his expression is serious. “When you’ve been around as long as I have, you learn appreciate the little things.”

He pushes the chopped parsley into the sauce and stirs it. “Plus, I can’t just ‘magic’ up an apology dinner.”

“No?”

“No way," he says, with mock offense. "It has to come from the heart.”

“And ‘magic’ doesn’t come from the heart?”

He shakes his head, smile back on his face. “More like the fiery pits of hell.”

Alex laughs and sets her empty mug in the sink. “I’ll set the table, hell-boy.”

“You got it, Earth-lady.”

As she sets silverware down on her dining room table, it hits Alex. She’s having fun. It’s past three in the morning, a demon is making spaghetti in her kitchen, and she’s having fun. She suddenly feels the need to sit down and re-evaluate her life.

Peering into the dining room, the demon grins. “Yeah, you go ahead and make yourself comfortable. I’ll bring out the plates.”

When he comes out, balancing two plates heaped with spaghetti, Alex tries to remind herself this creature possessed an eight year old kid and has been walking around in Richard Strand’s body for a majority of Strand’s life. She shouldn’t be enjoying the company of something that can materialize sentient shadows with a snap of his borrowed fingers.

He must notice the change in her mood, because he frowns as he places a plate down in front of her, careful not to spill. “Don’t tell me you don’t like spaghetti.”

“No, no.” Alex shakes her head. She spins a few noodles around her fork and takes a bite. It’s good. Way better than the spaghetti she manages to whip together, even though he used the pasta and sauce already in her apartment. She puts it down as more demon magic and takes another bite. “So, what do I call you? When we’re alone, I mean. Well, when it’s just us...three?”

The demon slurps down a mouthful of noodles. His eyes, cool and blue, turn a little cold. She can’t help but notice how still he holds himself. “Names have power, Alex.”

“Right, I’ve heard that. But I’m not asking for your Name. It’s just awkward trying to distinguish the two people sharing the body in front of me. There’s Strand--even you call him that--and you. And I can’t keep referring to you as just 'the demon.'”

His eyes go a little unfocused, like he does when he ‘talks’ to Strand.

Alex goes back to her spaghetti, trying not to listen in to their conversation. But it’s difficult, because she’s sitting _right there._

“No, I’m not--I know you hate Dick. I wasn’t going to!”

“Fine, you’re right. I hate it when you’re right.”

“Yeah, okay, I’ll tell her. Keep your pants on." He grins. "Oh right, they’re my pants.”

Conversation apparently over, the demon scoops up another forkful of noodles. “We decided that it’s probably for the best you keep referring to me as 'the demon,' or whatever. Not because it’s metal as hell--because it is--but we don’t want you to forget what I am.”

“As if I could forget," Alex says. "I keep seeing those shadows in my sleep.”

His expression turns a little sheepish. “Sorry, I got carried away back there. But it’s important to him--to Strand. To me, too. I’m not human. If I wanted you to think of me as human, I wouldn’t have come clean about the possession.”

“So you don’t want me to call you Keith, or something?”

He sits back in his chair, laughing. “Keith?!”

Alex grins. “I don’t know. You kind of remind me of a frat boy.”

His eyes narrow. If she didn’t know any better, she’d think she sees jealousy written there. “Which frat boy? Who is this _Keith_ person?”

“I mean, in general. The way you speak and the way you act. It’s weird, when you compare it to Strand. Or, I guess, the persona of Strand.”

He tilts his head, considering. “Good weird?”

Alex smiles. “Yeah, I guess. Not that I wasn’t happy with the persona, but I’d like to get to know the real you. Both you _and_ Strand, if that’s okay.”

He blinks at her, as if he hadn’t expected her to say such a thing. His expression softens for a second and then he’s beaming at her.

Alex doesn’t know what it means to make a demon grin at her like that, but she has a feeling her life will be far from boring with him in it.

And if she gets to know the man underneath it all, well, she’s never shied away from a challenge.

**Author's Note:**

> *Edited 7.21.17


End file.
